Jammu Computer Dealers Association(JCDA)

JCDA was ranked sixth last year, but
it has lost its position and is ranked ninth currently. What were the
major challenges?

There were many challenges faced by the
association. One of them was that, earlier we were not united, as the
number of members associated with JCDA was quite less. But now, this
is no more our area of concern. Our membership drive has become very
strong. We now have more than 100 members in our association. And
these all are paid members, as we charge membership fees from them.
Besides, we are also fighting with the government authorities for the
IT complex, that we have been demanding for quite some time now. We
want a dedicated space for us in Jammu, but as we all know,
government approvals take its own course and time. We are constantly
pushing our cause and hopefully we might succeed as well.

Among all the associations, JCDA has
received good feedback from the members. What were the
members-centric initiatives that you have undertaken? Please
elaborate.

We try to remain as close as possible
to our members — be it in their happier days or even in their
difficult times. We take very good care of our members come what may.
We cooperate with them to an extent that is possible from our side
and stand by them in any given situation. Not only the executive
body, but all the members are in constant touch with each other. The
biggest reason behind the success of our association is that, any
decision taken up by the executive body is wholeheartedly accepted by
all the members. They follow the instructions given by the executive
body even when they don't agree to it.

JCDA scored well on parameters like
timely election, internal meeting, communication mode and social
activities. What were your initiatives to keep constituents engaged?
Please share any of the recent activities that have drawn attention
in the region?

In one year, we conduct four quarterly
meetings, which is our general body meeting. Here, we invite all our
members; in fact, it is compulsory for the all the members to attend
the meeting. We discuss all the issues in the meetings and then
mutually arrive to a particular decision. We also involve ourselves
in celebrations from time-to-time, which helps in creating a stronger
bond amongst the members. We play cricket matches with distributors
as well. I believe that with these activities, members come close to
each other. We conducted an IT expo last year,
which was a great success and gave us a path to scale to new heights.
Jammu has never witnessed such an extensive IT expo that was held
over a period of three days. The companies that participated in it
have given us a very positive feedback and now asking us to organize
it in the same way in the coming years as well. This has been a major
source of motivation for us and we are definitely planning to give
the same experience to the industry again in the future.

Website updation has become a
crucial part to keep members informed. Do you feel that you are
lacking in this area?

Website has been an issue for us.
Earlier, one of our members had committed, that he will do this for
free but eventually, he failed to keep up to his commitment. And
that's why, we haven't been able to update our website for quite some
time now. And again, since election date has been announced, everyone
is busy with that only.

Could you highlight some of the key
achievements in the year 2010? Any welfare activities undertaken by
the association?

One big achievement for us is that
earlier these members used to fight for the competition, but now they
are under the same roof, those activities have highly reduced. Now,
they do not interfere in each others territories. Besides, in a small
city like Jammu, members are more than willing to contribute from
their side towards the betterment of JCDA and take our initiatives to
the next level. Another achievement for JCDA is that, earlier people
used to avoid the election. But now, we are witnessing immense
competition here as well. Today, more and more people from the
industry are willing to fight election. We are also involved in many
social and welfare activities and we have allotted some fund for
conducting those as well. We even have reserve fund for helping any
of our members in their hard times. We do also visit blind schools
and old age homes to celebrate festivals with them.